Concerns among Paulding, Cobb County residents grow over solid waste transfer station

Residents in both Cobb and Paulding counties said they feel blindsided by the construction of a solid waste transfer station near their homes. 

Paulding County purchased the property in 2021 for nearly $1 million back in 2021 and the project went out to bid in May of 2024. 

Some told CBS Atlanta they had no idea it was coming until work began last month. 

Dozens of people were at Tuesday's Paulding County Board of County Commissioners Work Session hoping to put a stop to it. 

"Let's come up with a solution for this," said Paulding County resident, Tammy Day. "Let's give Capital Waste their money they've already spent on grading and clearing the land and give them a piece of land somewhere else in Paulding County." 

The property where the solid waste transfer station is being built is zoned as industrial according to Paulding County officials. 

But, it is surrounded by homes in both Cobb and Paulding counties. 

Cobb County resident, Donna Gates, was at Tuesday's work session and feels like the only solution is relocating the transfer center. 

"We also know they haven't started installing anything structurally at the site," Gates said. "They've been doing a lot of tree moving, dirt moving, no foundation yet, so we feel that we still have an opportunity to impress upon the county to move it somewhere else." 

Paulding County officials maintain they have done everything by the book. 

"If we had a residential and we had to rezone from a residential to an industrial for that, then that would be something that we would have had to handle differently," said Paulding County, County Manager, Tabitha Pollard. "But we really haven't done anything that was negligent on our part." 

Representatives from the company that will construct, operate and maintain the solid waste transfer station, Capital Waste Services, were also at Tuesday's meeting to answer questions. 

"Ultimately, we want to be great partners of the county," said Capital Waste Services President and CEO, Matt Parker. "I understand there's a need here, we want to fill that need in a responsible, clean, efficient way." 

We asked the Paulding County Commission Chairman, Tim Estes, if anything could be done to change the situation at this point. 

"I have to watch what I say but yeah there could be something done, but it would be more of a spiritual thing,"Estes said. "And of course, what our federal government does also. You don't know what's gonna happen in the next, you don't know what's gonna happen." 

A Change.org petition was created and has gained over 1,300 signatures since it was created four weeks ago.